Labyrinth of the Demon King is a first person horror game where you roam castles infested by demons to avenge your lord. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.

Labyrinth of the Demon King Review Overview

What is Labyrinth of the Demon King?

Labyrinth of the Demon King is a first-person survival horror game inspired by retro classics like King’s Field, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill. Immerse yourself in a haunting labyrinth, where puzzles and mysteries await around every corner. The game faithfully recreates the early 3D graphics era, complete with a retro aspect ratio and bit-crushed audio.

Labyrinth of the Demon King features:
　⚫︎　Puzzles
　⚫︎　Stamina-based combat
　⚫︎　Respawning enemies
　⚫︎　Stealth elements
　⚫︎　Retro-style visuals

For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Labyrinth of the Demon King's gameplay and story.

Digital Storefronts
Steam
$19.99

Labyrinth of the Demon King Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Starts With High Stakes Impressively Suffocating Audiovisuals Gameplay-Relevant Lore! Unintrusive Puzzles	Riches Are an Inevitability Instant Healing Is Detrimental to Suspense Deceptively Simple

Labyrinth of the Demon King Overall Score - 76/100

Labyrinth of the Demon King is a flawed but undeniably charming retro horror game with a few caveats. In particular, its deep, reflex-driven combat is satisfying when played as intended, but can be easy to exploit once you know how it works. Fortunately, the claustrophobic visuals, nightmarish enemies, and unsettling audio all work together excellently to create a very effective horror experience.

Labyrinth of the Demon King Story - 6/10

The game’s plot is simple: you’re a lowly foot soldier whose lord was betrayed and defeated in battle. Being a loyal warrior, vengeance becomes your driving force, leading you to the castles occupied by the Demon King and his subordinates. It’s effective enough, yes, but it definitely could use a bit more drama to really showcase the cruelty of the antagonists.

Labyrinth of the Demon King Gameplay - 7/10

It’s easy to lose yourself in a challenging game once the gears in your head start to turn. Labyrinth of the Demon King’s involved combat system is something any technical player would love, and for good reason—it relies not just on reflexes, but also on the skill to respond correctly to your enemy’s actions. Unfortunately, it’s also the kind of game that’s a little too easy to break. So in the end, it’s only as good as your willingness to play it the way it was intended.

Labyrinth of the Demon King Visuals - 9/10

Forcing players to view the game in a claustrophobic 4:3 aspect ratio is an excellent touch that amplifies the eerie vibe of its retro filters. Enemy designs look like they were pulled straight from someone’s nightmares, and the way they blend into the background from a distance makes exploration feel tense—in a good way. That said, the game’s reliance on similar, nearly indistinct color palettes can occasionally hinder gameplay and make it hard to track enemies or your surroundings.

Labyrinth of the Demon King Audio - 9/10

I love it when retro horror game audio sounds like it’s pretending to be something real. It’s eerie and gives the game a psychological discomfort that feels entirely intentional. Labyrinth of the Demon King nails this—down to how even the rain sounds like a distorted mockery of the real thing. However, most of what you hear is just ambient noise, and it becomes easy to tune out once you’ve grown used to it.

Labyrinth of the Demon King Value for Money - 7/10

At just a cent under $20, Labyrinth of the Demon King is a solid bargain for what it offers. While it’s not perfect, it’s the kind of game most people can enjoy—as long as they come in with the right mindset. It offers around 18 hours of gameplay (or much less, if you’re not as grind-crazy as I am), which is quite a lot for its price point.

Labyrinth of the Demon King Review: Get Stuck By Choice

As much as I’m a fan of horror games, I’ve admittedly never played anything quite like Labyrinth of the Demon King before. When it comes to first-person games, I’m more used to having either a gun or practically nothing at all—so getting a sword and engaging in up-close, almost uncomfortably personal fights was a completely new experience for me.

That said, I really enjoyed it. I’m definitely planning to look more into this kind of genre.

Anyway, Labyrinth of the Demon King is, as advertised, a first-person survival horror set in an alternate version of feudal Japan, where demons have overrun the land and twisted everything beyond recognition. But despite the dramatic premise, you—the player—aren’t anyone special. You’re just a lowly foot soldier, an ashigaru, out for revenge after your lord, Takeda Nobumitsu, was betrayed and defeated in battle.

No, you’re not a samurai. You’re a nameless nobody, the kind of person who doesn’t get songs or stories written about them. That’s made pretty clear by your starting gear: a set of flimsy armor and a heavily corroded katana with half its blade broken off. And before you ask—yes, you’re expected to start fighting demons with that (unless you find a little something lying around in the first area… hint hint).

It’s just one of the many ways the game makes everything feel as bleak as possible. Your future is bleak. The weather is bleak. The demons are bleak. Even the friendly priestess’ laundry somehow manages to look bleak. Honestly, it’s impressive how thoroughly depressing they made the whole game feel—even the main menu has that distinct air of despair.

It Pulls Off Claustrophobic Audiovisuals Extremely Well

Labyrinth of the Demon King opens with a 4:3 aspect ratio, boxing your screen with thick black bars on either side. At first, I assumed this was just a stylistic choice to match the game’s retro filters—and I was right, for the most part. The old-school ratio is, indeed, the default. But here’s the kicker: it’s also the only option.

Sorry, fans of 16:9 or ultra-wide setups—standard definition is the only path forward. And honestly? It works. For a horror game that revolves around navigating tight corridors and sword-fighting grotesque demons, this narrower view does wonders in reinforcing the feeling of entrapment. It forces you to be more aware of your surroundings—especially at corners—since your peripheral vision is swallowed in total darkness.

The claustrophobia doesn’t stop at visuals. The game’s surreal, almost broken audio design dials up the tension. Everything and everyone you hear feels slightly off, like eerie imitations of real-life sounds. Maybe it’s the heavy filtering, but even your own footsteps end up sounding haunting. If you're not used to this kind of atmosphere, it's easy to feel paranoia creep in as you roam the halls, soaking in every dissonant sight and sound. It’s beautifully horrific.

…Just don’t try to get clever and replace the black bars with white using screen magic (or taping paper onto your monitor). It ruins the mood in a way that’s almost comically wrong. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience. Then again, you’ll probably start noticing that a lot of the background audio and level design elements aren’t exactly essential to the gameplay anyway. And once you do, navigating those spooky passageways just turns into routine walks around familiar areas.

You’ll be doing a lot of that, by the way, because…

Reading is Actually Important, For Better or For Worse

You know how some games love to dump lore and backstory into optional reading material? It’s a great system—miscellaneous worldbuilding tucked into newspaper clippings, diary entries, post-its, and whatever else developers can dream up, giving players the choice to dive in or skip past.

Labyrinth of the Demon King, however, doesn’t play that way—or at least, not entirely. This game has a habit of hiding really important information in those same books and scraps that many players tend to ignore. We’re talking about things like how to defeat certain enemies or where to find the final piece of the one puzzle barring your attempts to progress.

Of course, you could always skip the reading entirely. After all, why should important solutions be tucked into text instead of being built into the gameplay? That’s a fair argument. But honestly, the difference is minor. In my experience, wandering through each castle without direction makes exploration even more tense. Every expedition becomes a gamble, and that uncertainty? It adds just the right amount of bite to the experience.

In the end, though, I ended up reading those things just to make my life a bit easier. I had more pressing things to think about, after all. Plus, I feel like the oh-so-mighty Demon King and his subordinates seem to be making fun of me by making me do puzzles instead of fighting them in deadly combat.

Combat Has a High Skill Floor—And a Low Skill Ceiling

If you’re like me and have near zero experience with these types of games, you’ll 100% be floundering during your first few hours in Labyrinth of the Demon King. The game features a very, very “involved” combat system—one that sometimes feels like playing rock-paper-scissors if it involved Quick-Time Events, guts, wooden chairs, and the option to just run away.

See, unless your enemies are tied to a pole like the one in the tutorial, every encounter becomes a brutal back-and-forth between you and a drooling demon who looks way too excited at the thought of sautéed human, served in your skull.

For the most part, both you and your enemies have access to the same set of tools: normal attacks, heavy attacks, kicks or pushes, and parries. The catch? You’re limited by stamina, and everything you do—attacking, kicking, dodging—burns through it. Since you'll be facing down dozens of demons before you reach your next save point, learning how to manage your options efficiently isn't just helpful—it's critical.

Each move in combat has a counter. Normal attacks can be parried. Parries can be broken through with heavy attacks. And so on. That alone should give you a good idea of how the game wants you to play: reactively. Wait for enemies to make a move, then punish them for it. This approach makes the most of your limited stamina and helps preserve your health.

As a result, every fight feels like a genuine struggle for survival. One misstep, one misread, and a chunk of your health is gone before you even know it. Worse still, some enemies can combo you to gouge out even more of your health or healing unless you know what to do.

At least, that’s what the game is trying to tell you.

I didn’t mention it before, but the way to counter kicks or pushes is to dodge them. This was something explicitly mentioned by the game; you even have a dedicated dodge button that doesn’t consume any stamina unless you use them within five seconds of each other. However, what the game didn’t tell you is that it works on practically everything else.

No, I’m not talking about spamming the dodge button. You see, attacks in Labyrinth of the Demon King have quite an exquisite reliance on hurt and hitboxes. That means, so long as you’re out of an enemy’s reach, their attacks won’t connect. Being too far away works, sure. But, the thing is, it also works if you’re to their side or back when they attack, effectively making them whiff while giving you an opportunity for a free hit.

This simple knowledge almost entirely infantilizes most enemies, as a lot of them swing their weapons in a simple downward arc instead of wide ones to cover their sides. It’s even easier to dodge their kicks or pushes because those hit only the space in front of them.

On the matter of resources, yes, I did say you’ll be fighting a dozen enemies between each save point—and it’s true. And along the way, you’re bound to slip up a few times, costing you some healing items in the process. Unfortunately for you, Labyrinth of the Demon King doesn’t work like Dark Souls, where simply reaching a save point magically refills your healing stock.

Consumables are—well—consumables. Once you use them, they’re gone. So whether you’re fighting, looting, or just poking around castle corridors, you’ll need to be stingy with your items and money. Only buy what you really need, and only use what you can afford to lose. At least, that’s the idea.

In practice, though? Not so much. You can actually farm the weakest mobs for cash, then buy healing items from the creepy catlike merchant in his teahouse. This means you basically have access to infinite healing—assuming you’re willing to spend a few minutes grinding for money between pushes through the stage.

Oh, you don’t want to bother with all of that? Well, I’ll tell you another useful piece of information: sprinting doesn’t cost stamina. Even in combat. You know what that means, right? Yep—choosing the skedaddle button for everything is 100% a viable strategy.

Also, using healing items is instant. I probably don’t need to explain why that’s a bit of a problem in a game that’s supposed to punish reckless decisions, but yeah. Mess up? Just hit the heal button and you’re good to go, ready for round two of getting your behind beaten up.

Is Labyrinth of the Demon King Worth It?

It’s Still a Good Game

In my opinion, the level of enjoyment you get from the game depends entirely on how willing you are to play it the way the developers likely intended. Ironically, if you’re pure of heart, its $19.99 USD asking price is definitely worth offering to the Demon King. In return, you’ll get the full, exhilarating experience of being blasted into walls and dunked on by everything—including even the most common mobs in every stage. Fun, right?

On the other hand, if you’re the type who loves poking at a game’s mechanics to see how far you can push them, you’ll quickly realize it doesn’t take much to break things apart. But does that mean it’s not worth getting? Definitely not. It’s still a fun experience—at least until you fully understand how it works. That said, it might be worth waiting for a sale.

Digital Storefronts
Steam
$19.99

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Labyrinth of the Demon King Product Information

Title	LABYRINTH OF THE DEMON KING
Release Date	May 13, 2025
Developer	J. R. Hudepohl
Publisher	Top Hat Studios, Inc.
Supported Platforms	PC
Genre	Horror, Adventure
Number of Players	1
ESRB Rating	TBD
Official Website	Labyrinth of the Demon King Website

Al

Obsessed with high fantasy and zombie novels, as well as gacha games. Spends most of his nights trying to write a webnovel, but ends up playing Eternal Return until passing out instead.